Friday, August 28, 2009

A few of you were kind enough to compliment my college senior picture -- the word "gorgeous" was used twice. Thanks! But even the photographer joked about the photo shoot. When I went to look at the proofs, he was Mr. Sarcastic: "Oh, I didn't recognize you with your eyes open." Of the myriad of photos we took, it was the only one where I had my eyes open most of the way. Truthfully? It's not a bad photo for me, I've taken worse. But gorgeous? Bless your heart.

And you don't know the half of it!My only sister (older by two years) must sometimes ponder what it would be like to take a bad picture. Her high school years were just one fab photo after another -- beauty contests, modeling, dancing, looking good in a gym suit, Quiana knit prom dresses, boys calling all the time. She had what they called "advantages" in Jane Austen novels.

I think the photo above is one of her nicest, although her wedding photo for the newspaper was good too (not scanned so I can't share it). Here are several more or less randomly selected shots from our family album. It's not like I had to pick out the good ones.

Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. ~Margaret Mead

What a great bit of wisdom. Some sisters are super-close, and at the other end of the continuum are sisters who fight. I can't say we were really competitive -- we were very different kids in terms of temperament and interests -- but growing up there was friction, and I think she'd agree we lived more or less separate lives growing up. We've gotten closer over the years, despite living far away from one another. Les now has two beautiful girls, a tall horse-loving hubbie, and two horses she keeps on her 15 acre property in Louisville KY. She's been a great listener and a great supporter through Riley's recent surgery -- it's so nice to have the horses in common!

....it's been a treat to get a glimpse into your personal life of days gone by and especially so since we're in the same age group!

You know, I always look forward to what I call your "equestrian wit" as well as the varied equine topicsyou hit upon. Of late, I'm an avid follower of Riley's progress but I must tell you that seeing your photos and the accompanying story lines brought me back to my own past! And before I knew it, I pulled out my "old" albums to have a look (errrrr, laugh) at my own pics! It was then I found that it had been years since I thought of that time period! So, thank you for putting me on my own personal path down "Memory Lane"!

cute family pictures. Yes, they're sometimes horrible when taken, but such a treasure over the years. I, too, have a sister two years older. She was better in everything! Sports (including horseback riding), school, looks! Oh well....

I'm like you, I have very few god pictures. If you catch me candid, I can take an OK picture, but the problem is that I am really attentive to my surroundings so I notice quickly when there's a camera out, and then the candid is ruined!

My sister on the other hand, like yours, takes good pictures! Something I'm just tad jealous of! (My sister is two years older than me; however, to her dismay, I'm taller!)

Even with the slight jealousy, we're very close sisters. A huge deciding factor on which college I choose to attend was based on near her. We'll only be a 45 minutes bus ride apart, which I'm thrilled about!

We've moved a lot (and I mean a LOT - 16 times), so maybe that had something to do with it. We constantly had to leave our friends behind, but we were always there to entertain, help, comfort, love, and just generally be there for each other!